Cambridge Proposes Top Fees

8 February 2011, 13:13 | Updated: 18 February 2011, 16:35

Cambridge University is believed to be the first university in the country to announce it wants to charge students £9,000 in tuition fees next year.

Poorer students would be offered reductions of up to £3,000 per year, plus bursaries worth up to £1,625 a year.

The proposals come from a report by Cambridge University's working group on fees.

They have been published for consultation and a final decision is expected later this month.

MPs voted in December to raise fees to £6,000 per year from 2012, with universities allowed to charge £9,000 in "exceptional circumstances".

Cambridge's report is recommending a single rate of £9,000 for all home and EU students, regardless of the course of college they study at.

The report argues that even with tuition fees set at #9,000, the university is still "carrying the burden of a significant loss per student.

"To charge less than the maximum would be fiscally irresponsible,'' it says.

The report also says it expects that "most if not all of our peers'' will charge the maximum.